--=Introduction=--
Of Lebanese descent, Shadiya is a youthful, perky girl who honestly has probably assimilated fairly well in... wherever the hell she is now. She was always musically inclined ever since an early age, and now in her mid-to-late teens, she regularly practices the violin and dreams of one day joining some kind of fancy rock band or the like that'd appreciate some strings in their sound. She wants to consider herself 'eclectic', but honestly, Shadiya's taste in music is honestly fairly predictable and can easily follow certain, not-quite-mainstream but not-quite-obscure paths through modern rock. ...Though, other than music, she might seem a bit lazy, scoring decent grades in school but never /standing out/ either.
--=The Forbidden Tone=--
In the universe known to some as the Realm of Bells, there are a great many things mortals would do well not to know of. Some are quite tangible and all too dangerous in a physical sense. Others, corrupt the mind into inevitable collapse. ...Then there are those whose dangers seem subtle and hard to even grasp. Shadiya had encountered, about half a year ago, one such thing. It's hard to tell how, or if she even actually discovered it as much as /it/ discovered /her/. But there was a seductive whistling of the wind that implanted itself in her mind, and she, in a mad-eyed haze, /had/ to write down notes for it.
It had no name that she knew of, yet all the same she had to call it /something/. Assuming it was her own work, Shadiya would eventually call it the Fugue of Thralldom, both for how it was indeed a repetitive sound... and she couldn't quite place why the 'thralldom' fit in. It just felt... correct. Over time, she'd eventually realize there was an entire suite of melodies she could make from that initial fugue... But maybe doing so would be the wrong idea.
But maybe that poetic name was a bit /too/ poetic. For a while, Shadiya acted stranger and stranger still - usually either oblivious or maybe a bit distracted... but also obsessive. Obsessive in a /bad/ way.
--=Obsession=--
It all happened when Shadiya transferred to a new school - depending on your place amidst the branches of time, it might be somewhere in Nexus, or it might be
Flint_Mount_High. But regardless of how it came about, the increasingly more /affected/ Shadiya would come across a certain special Japanese girl. One whose name was Suzune, one who was special for reasons Shadiya seemed to be the only one to understand. But thus began the obsession... seeming love letters, stalking, collecting of photos of her... Poor Suzune doesn't even know yet. But she will, soon...
It is only a matter of time, though, before Shadiya's obsession leads to her taking action. Maybe she'll consume her lover in one of her bizarre esoteric ways... maybe she'll compel Suzune to consume /her/. Maybe she might even, in the case of one variation of her target, try to take control of one of those doll bodies and /become/ her beloved.
Though until then, she'd certainly want to pursue 'meals', 'test audiences', and other things. And if someone else catches her eye, she might /deal/ with them. Maybe, maybe you might even be "lucky" enough to be in a timeline where she's instead become obsessed with /you/. ...Though even if that's not the case, she might still end up finding someone who's going after Suzune or otherwise involved with the poor, hapless girl to be worth... /dealing with/.
--=Her Music=--
Shadiya's command of the Forbidden Tones, as revealed by the Fugue of Thralldom, grants her a number of abilities. Use of the music can vary in intensity and effect; whether she hums it or sings a song to its tune or plays it on an instrument will often change how it works, as will if she alters notes or pitch or tempo or any number of variables.
Another concept that's important to Shadiya's powers is that of the "Heartsong". Every thing has one - /everything/. Those belonging to inanimate objects are highly indistinct and not that useful, but those belonging to living beings, especially /sentient/ living beings, are quite notable and very useful. Altering a Heartsong, or even /devouring/ it, is key to Shadiya's manipulations.
Fugue of Thralldom: The original melody that taught her the Tones, Shadiya can use this tune to control minds. Just hummed or otherwise half-heartedly played, the Fugue can distract or entrance a listener, focusing their attention on her and only her, often with memory gaps soon following. But when played more intensely, Shadiya can induce stronger, more lasting control that can let her then have a chance to plant suggestions and make commands. However, Fugue Thralls have to often have the music replayed for them or the effect wears off.
Dirge to the Truth: A somber, almost agonizingly depressing tune Shadiya's since derived. Accounting for intensity, the Dirge directly interferes with the fabric of reality - its changes are never abrupt or jarring, but instead represent some kind of terrible unreality subtly guided by the girl into being. It could be as small as a minor detail changing (the message on a sign suddenly being something else, or some kind of coincidental event delaying a bus)... to things as vast as nightmares made flesh suddenly roaming the alleyways of town. The larger the effect, though, the more /intensely/ she has to perform and the longer it takes to happen. However, in a /pinch/, a very discordant version of this tune can be used to quickly harm others, mostly by just melodically screaming reality apart. The results aren't all that pretty: perspective cracks and falters, flesh warps and bones rend, things melt and fragment... It just ruins things with sheer angry /noise/.
The Eternal Conductor: Not really a 'song', as much as a reflection of Shadiya's talent. She can hear Heartsongs, pick out individual notes, and notice things like discrepancies or common themes or the like. It, for lack of a better description, acts like some kind of 'true perception' that combines seeing through illusions (whose Heartsongs are hollow and unlike the real thing), empathic senses (because she's learned to tell the notes and swells of emotions in a person's song), recognizing things on a more detailed level (like noticing something's changed, even if in a way too subtle to see mundanely... or knowing a person such that she can easily pick out that it's the same guy even if disguised or transformed), and so on.
All-Consuming Finale Concerto: While it often takes /effort/ to actually perform, this is easily Shadiya's masterwork. It's a long and difficult piece, so she usually needs to tire out, tie up, mind-control, or otherwise incapacitate her "Audience" first. From there, the song can begin. Grandiose, mournful... yet somehow never the same twice. Shadiya /always/ plays it differently, because she's playing in tune between her prey's Heartsong(s) and that of the Forbidden Tones. While the end result is that their essence and physical form is drawn into her to be devoured utterly? The /way that happens/ is quite variable, and often deeply surreal. Sometimes, people invisibly die as their souls filter into the song and join it while leaving their bodies behind. Other times, they become a food item most representative of their inner nature. Yet more times Shadiya will then get the overpowering urge to take them into one of her orifices - or things that are definitely /not/ orifices but vaguely resemble one - and devour them directly. ...The strangest incident she can recall is when she decided to end her prior school period with a 'bang', and trapped the entire school band in the main auditorium... played this very concerto... and continued to serenely play as their bodies flowed like gelatinous rivers through the air, pulsing in time with her music, and pouring into her body in such a way that even the lewd noises of pleasure and the contented sounds of gluttonous satisfaction she made both only heightened the song.
...Suffice it to say, things can and will get very strange. It's possible, too, the girl might have the capacity to learn more songs...
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All unshown sliders as Sacred_Bells values.
(( The Forbidden Tone amidst the
Sacred_Bells. ))
